Northeast, Anuradhapura Bishops meet Rajapakse

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 January 2007, 03:21 GMT]Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapksa met with Jaffna Bishop Rev.Thomas Saundranayagam, Mannar Bishop Rev.Rayappu Joseph, and Anuradhapura Bishop Rev.Norbert Andradi at Temple Trees Friday afternoon. The discussions centered on the hardships faced by civilians in the Northeast and steps that can be taken to alleviate the suffering, sources in Colombo said.

Rev Rayappu Joseph recently called the killing of fifteen civilians during an air-raid by Sri Lanka Airforce on a civilian settlement in Padahuthurai in Mannar on 2 January 2007, a crime against humanity, and accused the military for telling a "barefaced lie," that the airstrike had hit a LTTE military installation.

Meanwhile, Rt. Rev.Thomas Savundaranayagam, had recently urged the Liberation Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka to allow food items to reach people in Jaffna, and said that the residents in Jaffna are living in an "open prison."

Bishop Andradi in a recent address to students at Trincomalee St.Joseph's College said: "We should learn from our past mistakes. We should learn to respect and accept diversity. We should rise above all differences, breaking man-made barriers and demolishing walls around us."